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The Bay Area Open Narrative event was a hit!

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Yesterday I ran the event, we had 10 players and it was a fantastic, no scratch that a GLORIOUS success!

The planet Delis fell into ruination as the forces of Disorder set everything ablaze in their hunt for the artifact.

One of my favorite epic moments in a game filled with epic moments!

Titus the Butcher staring down a Baneblade; I though he was a goner! Boy howdy was I wrong, Josh the Daemon player rolled the most epic batch of Saves I have ever seen. Titus basically shrugged off 6 Lascannons and 15 heavy bolter shots, although he did lose 2 wounds.

The two sides shaped up like this:

Forces of Order
Tim: Space Marines
Sean: IG
Seath: Sisters
Adan: Grey Knights
Michael: Praetorian IG

The Forces of Disorder
Carl: Chaos Marines
Josh: Chaos Daemons
Aaron: Necrons
Zathras: Necrons
Mark: IG

I will do a full write up later this week, but here are some pics to tide you over for now.






I would like to thank all the great guys that participated in the event for making it a success, you guys are the best!

-Jim

CelestiCon 40k Narrative Event proposal sent!

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I have submitted and am hashing out the final details for another narrative event this time at CelestiCon in Fremont CA. This will be another "Big Game" of 40k similar to the event ran at the BAO; with some slight revisions. This Event will happen on Sunday September 2nd, during the Celebrating 25 years of 40k event I created on Facebook, a week to play some great 40k games and share our memories of the good times we have had. Maybe even try busting out an old edition and play a nostalgic game, basically anything goes as long as we share!.

The background for this event is directly linked to the BFG campaign I just finished up. The forces of Chaos have wrested control of the Denari system on the Eastern Fringe. Denari is a valuable Imperial resource planet in the sector and must be retaken at all costs. Control of the Promethium and Adamantium mining facilities are key goals to the campaign.

The lack of an Imperial Fleet presence has brought many forces to bear on the world in an attempt to capture its resources for their race. There have even been void skirmishes with scouting elements for a Tyranid hive fleet in the outer reaches of the sector.

More soon!

Celesticon 2012 40k Narrative event info so far

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The battle for Denari: Narrative gaming event

The forces of Chaos has wrested control of the Denari system on the Eastern Fringe. Denari is a valuable Imperial resource planet and must be retaken at all costs. Control of the Promethium and Adamantium mining facilities are key goals to the campaign.

The lack of an Imperial Fleet presence has brought many forces to bear on the world in an attempt to capture its resources for their race. There have even been void skirmishes with scouting elements for a Tyranid hive fleet in the outer reaches of the sector.

Come join us for a fun filled big game of 40k!

Allowed armies:
Armies can be built from all current 40k codices including the White Dwarf codex for the Sisters of Battle, and may also include or be built to include units or completely using the army lists in the Imperial Armor books. Units and list may only be drawn from Imperial Armor book 3-11 and the IA Apoc books.

With that said all IA units and lists must use the most current listing for the unit, which includes the Errata listed on the Forgeworld site.

Armies are built using the following requirements:
2000 points using the normal force organization process and may include one superheavy vehicle from the Apocalypse rulebook or an IA book it may have no more than 3 structure points. Each army may also include one Spearhead formation as listed in the spearhead rules on the games workshop site.

Narrative gaming cards:
At the beginning of the game each player will draw a strategy card from the decks that I will provide.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Fate card from from decks that will be provided. The Fate cards will add to the narrative of the game allowing each commander some special bonus during the game.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Mission card from decks that will be provided. These will provide each player with a secret agenda that will benefit their team upon completion.

Painting:
Every army must be painted to a three color minimum and be based. (basing can be as simple as painting your models bases an appropriate color.) This is not debatable, we want a great looking event filled with painted models fighting over nice looking terrain.

Scoring:

Objectives will be scored at the bottom of every game turn. Objectives held by a troops choice are worth 2 points, any other unit may score objectives with a worth a value of 1 point gained.

Event House Rules:

Bogged Down:
This rule replaces the current rule for when a vehicle moves in difficult or dangerous terrain.

When a vehicle enters difficult or dangerous terrain some times they become temporarily immobilized; stuck in the terrain they are attempting to cross. These vehicles are referred to as Bogged Down.

Follow the normal procedure for vehicles moving in difficult or dangerous terrain; if they get bogged down place a marker next to the vehicle.

A bogged down vehicle may remobilize at the start of any of its turns by rolling a 4+ on a D6. They may function as normal from that point on, including making a test for difficult terrain if they want to move.

Dangerous Terrain Test:
Dangerous terrain tests will usually remove a model as a casualty if they roll a 1 on the D6 test. This test is changed to the following.

If the model fails the dangerous terrain test it is only removed if the model fails its saving throw (Armor or Invulnerable). Feel No Pain may not be used to save a model from failed saves in this case.”



6th Ed Killzone Beta Released

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It's final here, the S.O. Killzone 6th edition beta is available for download! This is not the finished update, it has no pics and most of the flavor text has not be added in; this is to get you guys back on the table. Let me know of any hiccups you find during play.



I have also uploaded the printer friendly versions of the Mission and Fate cards. You can print them out and paste them to regular playing cards.








Changes to 6th ed Killzone

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I have been asked a few times since last night to list the major changes in the 6th ed update. To be totally honest there are no major changes, mostly minor tweaks.

Killzone Overwatch became Opportunity Fire

Grenades are thrown following the rules from the 6th ed MRB.

Assault distance is 4inches plus a D6, this was done to make sure that models with the new versions of fleet and equipped with Jump packs function properly.

I upped the limit of Jump Infantry and Bikes/Cav from 2 to 3 models in a standard list.

Some of the Killzone Wargear got tweaks as well; they are the Auspex, Medi-pack, Suspensors, Targeters and Thermal Imaging.

In missions with Reserves deployment 3 models may deploy via Deepstrike.

That is about the extent of the changes, although there has been some rewording of some rules/wargear for clarity. 

I am working on a team leader traits chart that I will hopefully be incorporating into the official update.


Killzone new rule ideas

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Here are a few rules that we have been testing, but have not added to the update yet. They may or may not make it in. I figured I would give you a glimpse at what we are cooking up behind the scenes. 
Auto-fire:Any time a stationary model with a heavy weapon that has 3 or more shots fires, the shooting player may choose to initiate an Auto-fire attack; the player lays down a 3 x 5 inch Auto-fire template down with the long edge facing the shooting model. All models under the template generate one extra to hit dice in addition to the weapons usual rate of fire. These shooting attacks are all made at -1 BS. Wounds are allocated one at a time starting with the closest model, you may not place a second hit on any model until every model under the template has been allocated a hit.

Strength in Numbers: If you out number your opponent in the assault phase your models gain +1 to hit with all close combat attacks. However if you lose combat while outnumbering your opponent you have -1 to your leadership test.

Chain Blades: 2 points
Any model armed with a close combat weapon may upgrade it to a Chain Blade. These are vicious flesh rending, armor shredding weapons. Chain Blades are AP 4. (You may not upgrade combat accessories to Chain Blades)

Clear! Zaaaapp..... I'm back where I belong!

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It has been a long year and it is high time I just retake my place amongst the blogging community. With my own flair on my original blog! Although the name is changing and more diverse content to be covered, everyone will know where to find me! So lets grab that defibrillator and jump start this pig!


I will begin tomorrow by sharing some details of what I have been through in the past 18 months. It has not been pretty but I have made it through and would like to believe I am stronger for it.

Until tomorrow keep your powder dry and lead flying!


Trials and tribulations

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So I have been through the ringer in the past 2 years. It all started when I was hit by a car while crossing the street. At the time it did not phase me much other than being extremely sore. Well it turns out it exacerbated my existing neck and back issues from my Paramedic career ending tumble down some stairs when I was 31


Since the day of my initial injury I have been in semi constant pain in my lower back and hip from sciatic nerve damage. Some days are worse than others. I have also had a hitch in my neck where some days I have a hard time turning it more than 20 degrees without excruciating pain. Mind you this was all prior to getting hit by the car.

Not much changed after the car incident well that was until six months later. That is when I started having twitches in my left hand and right foot. They were minor at first, but at the same time my sciatic nerve was the most painful it had been since the initial injury in 2001. So I promptly got off my feet per docs orders to alleviate the pressure on the sciatic nerve.

We it turns out old age and a few years of type 2 diabetes (which mind you I had completely cleared myself of in early 2011 through exercise and diet)  caught up with me. It turns out I have a circulation issue called venostasis and over the 3 months of being pretty immobile recovering from the sciatic pain this new issue reared its ugly head.

My leg had swollen and turned almost black like a giant bruise. I thought it was something far worse, but thankfully it is completely treatable, if managed properly. That said, this again put me on bed rest for recovery. That is when the issues with my neck really showed up, my left pinky and ring fingers were twitching constantly.

It has been almost a year since all this bad stuff started showing, but through diet and exercise the issues are slowly going back to a normal for me state. I have lost an additional 35 pounds, but have much more to go. The docs say that if I can get another 80 pounds or so off I should have very little in the way of pain or twitching and should be able avoid surgery, my weight is exacerbating the problem. 

As you can imagine my hobby time has been pretty much gone, short of a few games here because of this recovery. I am glad I am finally at the point that I can sit down and start hobbying again.

Anyway I am honestly on the road to a leaner more healthy Jim. I thank the lord for that every day. Sometimes you have to hit your lowest point to realize that your life needs a change.

Until Next time keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

New Horizons, Going Forward

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It is time to say goodbye to 40k centric Galaxy in Flames and move forward into blogging about all of my miniature wargaming experiences. I just cannot completely say goodbye since I built a very solid community on GiF and made a ton of new friends here as well, so think of this as a re-branding of sorts because that is basically what it is. A dawn of a new blogging era, please join me on this journey!


I have re-booted many things in my personal life to contend with my health issues. My life has been a constant struggle for the last 18 months, but now that I am getting a real manageable handle on those I can move forward in the hobby world.

I will still offer 40k hobby content although going forward there will probably be more Horus Heresy 30k than 40k. I will also be offering content for Warzone Resurrection, Flames of War, Grunts 15mm Sci-fi, Muskets and Tomahawks (French Indian War skirmish), Lord of the Rings and anything else shiny that strikes my fancy.

On top of all that Special Operations Killzone will be here as well, as my buddy Lee and I are working hard to catch up with the crazy release schedule that GW is throwing at us.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

Leaving my mark on Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection

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The revival of the Mutant Chronicles universe on the tabletop is quickly approaching retail release via Warzone Resurrection. I am pumped about it for many reasons. First off this is my second favorite Sci-fi gaming universe, it is well written and has a compelling setting. Secondly I got to lend a hand in bringing this property back to life.

I was talking with the guys at Prodos Games asking them copious questions about the design of the new system. We talked about all sorts of things including the desire for everything about Warzone Resurrection to be very dynamic, from the miniatures to the rules, right down to how the table could interact with the armies during game play.

Prodos Games had chosen a very aggressive release window and I knew that they could use all the support they could get. I had mentioned many different ways that other games had done including the very dynamic mission system that had been created for Special Operations Killzone (my unofficial 40k fan skirmish game) as something they might want to look at to get ideas for something inspiring for Warzone’s gameplay.

They mulled over their options for a few weeks; I was eagerly waiting to see what they had come up with, when I got asked to help create a similar mission system for Warzone Resurrection; they mentioned what bits they were keen on and which they were not. I was totally stoked at the opportunity to help bring back the game with a very dynamic way to play games.

I decided against trying to reinvent the wheel, and took the baseline content from the Killzone missions as a starting point. First thing I did was strip out the 40k from them and the less liked bits, which was extremely simple. Callous disregard and desperate gamble were scrapped in favor of a tiered difficulty system.

So I went about setting up a tier system allowing players to determine how in-depth they want their games to be. There are 4 tiers Alpha, Beta, Delta and Epsilon levels each one adds another type of mission objective to the game. Delta is the most in-depth and difficult of the mission tiers with three distinct missions to complete over the course of a game.

After that I worked out deployment types for the missions, mostly tweaking and renaming things to fit Warzone; there are 5 possible deployment types.

Next I tackled the missions themselves. I started by tweaking appropriate KZ missions, in the end there are 10 Priority missions, 6 secondary missions and 9 Corporate Agenda missions.

I compiled all this hard work together and sent it to the guys at Prodos and they were thrilled. Then it was on to playtesting and tweaking, although there was very little tweaking to be done, thank goodness.

I want to give a hearty thanks to all the people past and present that have helped with Special Operations Killzone, especially Brian (my long time partner in crime and terrain maker extraordinaire), Joe and Vlad who were instrumental in the creation of the current mission system out of the more complex earlier versions. So thanks again guys, without you SO Killzone would not have enjoyed the success that it has.

I have not made any money from this great undertaking, but I have been more than happy to aid in bringing back a fantastic universe to the tabletops of the globe! Although I did get a pair of pre-release Razide minis and my name credited in the Warzone Resurrection rulebook, which is cool beyond words.

So while I may have been down and out from actual hobbying, I found a way to contribute to the community.Thank goodness for this project it literally kept me from going crazy during the worst part of my recovery.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and lead flying!
-Jim

My first Warzone Resurrection models

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Here are the first models I have painted for Warzone Resurrection. They have taken an excruciatingly long time to complete due to my current limitations. Before I show them off there are a few things I would like to share about the new miniatures line.

First off these are not "heroic" scaled miniatures, they are 100% proportional to their scale. They are billed as 28mm, but are actually 32mm, which I am excited about. The WZR models are 100% 3D designed, then printed and cast. They are cast out of polyurethane resin and have exceptional details. This isn't your standard quality resin either, out of my nearly 200 miniatures I have received I have not found a single bubble on them at all.

Secondly being truly proportioned to scale and being used to "heroic" scale models for 20 years is a bit startling at first. However once you begin building and painting these you become accustomed to it very quickly! I love them the more I look at them, they are gorgeous miniatures!

Thirdly these will not mix at all with any of the old existing Warzone miniatures, which is great in my eyes cause 80% of them look like garbage to today's standards.

Ok on to the eyecandy:

Here is a Capitol Free Marine:







Next up is a Dark Legion Razide:


I am quite pleased with how these have turned out, especially with my current painting limitations.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

Alien vs Predator game Kickstarter

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This game and these miniatures are a long time dream come true for me! I love these two movie series! Prodos Games the guys behind Warzone Resurrection are in the final days of their Kickstarter for AvP!


This Kickstarter is to produce a limited edition version of the board game with highly detailed resin miniatures. In late 2014 a standard version will come out with your typical plastic playing pieces, but it is for sure that they will not be as nice as this limited edition version.

There will also be a full on wargame version of AvP where you move off the boardgame set onto the regular battlefield.

So far the miniatures that we have been show are stunning! IMHO







Prodos has also given us a scale image to GW's minis.




So if you are a long time fan of Aliens like I am this is something you should consider jumping in on! Alien Vs Predator the Game Kickstarter

Come join the Bug Hunt with me!

30k S.O. Killzone and a request for help

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By the end of the year I will release a 30k version of Special Operations Killzone. This version will be grander in scale than standard SO KZ. Teams will start off at 400pts and scale up to 750; it is 30k after all and should be Legion scaled Killzone!

30k Killzone will also add land speeders and dreadnoughts into the lists; which is something that standard Killzone will never do. It will also focus more on the Elite and Specialist units from the Legions.

In other Killzone news, I need some help out with keeping Codex Operatives up to date. The reality of the situation is that GW is updating to fast for me and my freelance game design work has me slammed to the max. This leaves very little time for updating KZ at a reasonable rate.

I need at least two volunteers dedicated to working with me on Codex Operatives. With help I can keep standard SO KZ alive and up to date. Otherwise it will remain lacking and only 30k Killzone will remain fully up to date going forward.

So if you can please consider lending a hand, cause I would hate for standard SO Killzone to remain so out of date in the Codex dept.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

-Jim

30k Killzone has a working title!

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I have been busy behind the scenes working on the 30k version of Killzone. Thinking on how best to make the skirmish game feel work for the madness of the Horus Heresy.

What if your Killzone force represented the remnants of an attack force banding together to be a thorn in their opponents side while at the same time in the midst of a desperate struggle survive.

Instead of a highly specialized mission oriented game you have a rag tag group of survivors banded together out of necessity.

With that concept in mind Killzone Survival is born!

I would also like to thank Brian Sobb for joining the Killzone Survival team and for all his help so far! Upon linking up with me this past weekend he had already been working on a 30k adaptation for normal SO KZ; the most wicked part is that we seem to mostly be on the same page for the majority of things. Very Exciting!

Until next time: keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

Horus Heresy: Killzone Survival Logo and the start of my Group

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We finally have a new logo/banner for Killzone Survival, many thanks to my buddy Josh for making it!

On top of that I have built the first models for my World Eaters survival group!

Keep an eye out tomorrow for the initial playtest PDF for Killzone Survival!

Until next time: keep your powder dry and bullets flying!

Killzone Survival playtest PDF unleashed

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Ok ladies, gentlemen and xenos here it is, the playtest version of Horus Heresy: Killzone Survival!

Be warned though, this is not Special Operations Killzone; your force does not represent a highly elite team hell bent to complete super secret special ops. They are the bloodied, haggard remnants of a strike force in the age of the Horus Heresy. Your survival group has been decimated and for the most part defeated, but is doing its damnedest to still remain a thorn in the enemy’s side while at the same time survive to reunite with their Legion.

We have also added Dreadnoughts, Land Speeders and Rapier weapons platforms to Killzone Survival. I am very excited about this!

There is much more structure in the list building, as we have added a way of modifying the FOC in a way that makes the list feel like it came from an actual Legion! We have also restructured the list restrictions from SO Killzone into a much more scalable way to build lists.

I would like to thank Brian Sobb again for being a stellar gentleman and for all the help creating this version of Killzone!

So if you are interested in skirmish gaming in the age of the Horus Heresy, download the PDF and give it a whirl!

Playtesting will last until the tenth of January. Please email me your feedback through my profile.

In Space only Chaos can hear you scream!

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Battlefleet Gothic is inbound to Galaxy in Flames early June!

My buddy is coming home on leave from the military and has a hankering to play some BFG. Oddly enough the last time I played BFG is right before he was heading out to Germany 3 years ago.

The really kool thing about BFG is that it is one of the more reasonable GW Specialist games. Most of the boxes have not had large price increases since the initial release, shocking! The blister packs have gone up 6 or 7 bucks in 12 years, but that is still not horrible considering that this is GW.

The above pic is of some of my Chaos fleet taken last year when I was thinking about diving back into gothic. The strange thing is that BFG was what I was going to revive just prior to developing Killzone. I sure did end up making the right choice in the end!

The ships were painted in 2000 shortly after the release of the game. I chose the scheme because I wanted a generic color scheme and I always had a thing for the Gamilon Empire ships in Starblazers.

I’d love to share some more pics but my camera has died and gone to digital heaven. I’ll be picking up a replacement ASAP.

The final BFG battles begin tomorrow morning!

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The Betrayer
My father has been in town all month, he leaves Tuesday morning; we have been running a BFG campaign to determine the fate of the Denari system. I must say after personally playing about 14 games of BFG in the last 4 weeks I don't understand why any fan of 40k is not playing this game. It is an absolute blast to play and really easy to learn.

So far the forces of the Imperium have been brutalized at the hands of Chaos and Eldar pirates, but the Eldar do not discriminate and have manhandled the forces of Chaos as well. Damned pointy eared bastards!

That said the title most deadly ship goes to the Repulsive class Grand Cruiser the Betrayer. Holy crap this ship has single handedly killed or crippled a total of 13 cruisers with one salvo from its weapons batteries and lances. To top it off the ship has not been crippled once in the entire campaign.


I will be posting pics from the final two or three games sometime tomorrow.

Chaos victory in the Black Sea! (BFG campaign finally)

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The Denari system falls as the Imperial Navy and Eldar pirates in the sector are sent running. It was not an easy fight and the Chaos armada of the Soul Reapers has sent many ships back to the orbital docks above Ehdan for repairs and refitting.

Warlord Krüghas transferred his command from the Battleship Eater of Souls to his Battlebarge the Death Incarnate as the warbands Battlebarges, Legion Strike cruisers and light Strike cruisers arrive to bringing their full Astartes might to bear to begin culling of the systems resources.

Here are some pics from the final battle for the system as the Chaos Fleet overruns the Imperial Navy rally point.

The Fleets
This pic is missing a squadron of 3 Infidel class Raiders.

The Set Up
Opening moves

The battle begins
The Mars fires its Nova cannon at the Eater of Souls clipping its base doing one point of Damage. The Eater of Souls returns the favor and puts its lances to work causing 3 hits to the Mars.

More jockying for position as the Mars takes another shot at the Eater of Souls and completely misses with the Nova cannon, but the saving grace is two hits from its torpedo salvo.The Imperials get reinforcements this turn in the form of a squadron of light cruisers and a squadron of destroyers

The Chaos Iconoclast destroyers open up on the Cobras

Chaos Reinforcements arrive as the Betrayer and squadron of Infidels make life difficult for the Imperial light cruisers. The Betrayer cripples one vessel in one volley of its gun decks.

The Eater of Souls cripples the Mars with it's lances!

The Imperial light cruisers brutalize the Infidels.

The cobras destroy an Iconoclast.

The "Hateful Song" Slaughter class cruiser is crippled by the Imperial Battleship. As the Imperials get more reinforcements: in the form of a Lunar cruiser, more cobras and Overlord Battle cruiser

The Chaos fleet cripples the Lunar class cruiser on lock on orders.

The Betrayer cripples the Overlord then the Eater of Souls finishes it off!

3 turns of maneuvering later the final shots take place. With only the Eater of Souls able to lock on through the debris field.

The final results Chaos victory!

Chaos drifting hulk cruiser

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Here is the first of a few drifting hulks for my Chaos fleet. This started life as a poorly built ebay model. Thanks to my buddy Kev for converting this for me, the details are great!



I can think of lots of ways to use this model, it can be used to represent the first hulked out ship in a battle, or as part of the space "terrain".
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